The European food processing machine manufacturer is one of the market leaders in design and manufacture of sorting and packing machinery for fruits and vegetables. The company’s mission is to assist its customers to improve operational efficiency and productivity via innovative technologies. A project was initiated for an asparagus producer to use its specialized image recognition machine for asparagus sorting.

Thanks to the development of machine vision technology, manual operations now can be replaced by automated machine. Unlike the human eyes, image recognition does not make mistakes due to fatigue and is capable of saving time and labor cost. Automated image analysis does not only enhance quality control but also ameliorates overall productivity. Most importantly, an embedded PC plays a critical role in facilitating high-speed image processing. The manufacturer valued Cincoze's expertise in the embedded computing and deployed Cincoze DS-1002 in the project.

The Embedded PC Shall Operate in Harsh Environment

The customer used to apply a traditional 4U rackmount industrial PC in the past. However, one of the huge disadvantages is the requirement of spaces. A small-footprint embedded PC explicitly resolves the customer’s pain point. In addition, the ruggedness of embedded PC is a key element for the application that includes fanless, cable-less, anti-shock and vibration. Wide operating temperature is exceptionally significant due to the enormous heat generated in the control cabinet.

The Embedded PC Must be PCI / PCIe Expandable

The cleaned asparagus is transported to optical quality recognition station and from there to the appropriate collecting container, which is subdivided into different quality levels. Images of asparagus were captured by cameras and transmitted by Firewire signals. Digital I/O is required to command the air cylinder to deliver asparagus to the correct compartment. In addition, the customer required flexible system expansions for future demands as food sorting systems can be further developed in order to execute more tasks.

Two PCI/PCIe Expansion

The decision made on choosing DS-1002 was the possibility of expansion with two PCI/PCIe cards: One is connected with a Firewire card, the other is used for a digital I/O card. DS-1002 embedded computer is capable of having additional powerful graphics card expanded, which is required for advanced machine vision applications.

Upgradable and Modular Design

DS-1002 is a scalable and expandable system. Moreover it provides Cincoze’ innovative CMI (Combined Multiple IO) and CFM (Control Function Module) technologies, allowing I/O and functionalities expansion through ready-to-use modules, such as GbE ports, serial ports, PoE and power ignition function.